While there is a growing trend to use social media for public health promotion, research on its actual potential to influence health behaviors is limited. This dissertation explores whether and how social network sites (SNSs) can be used to promote physical activity (PA) through electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Composed of two studies, this dissertation explores PA-related eWOM from both the senders' and receivers' perspectives, and examines actual messages. The first study uses a web survey and explores the antecedents and communication consequences of eWOM about leisure-time PA (LTPA), and the behavioral consequences of eWOM among college students. The second study is based on a content analysis of public Twitter posts in the U.S. in 2011 regarding PA. Based on Sun et al.'s (2006) Path Model of Antecedents and Consequences of Online Word of Mouth, it was found that undergraduate SNS users with higher affective involvement and stronger social ties with their SNS contacts were more likely to provide opinions or information about PA. People with stronger social ties were also more likely to seek opinions or information. Both opinion leadership and opinion seeking were associated with forwarding and chatting. Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior, the first study also found social support of PA via eWOM on SNSs is associated with both affective and instrumental attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC), while social negativity of PA via eWOM on SNSs is associated with instrumental attitudes and PBC. Affective attitude, instrumental attitude, and PBC, in turn, predict intention to participate in LTPA. Moreover, when putting all these different constructs together to predict intention, social support via eWOM was found to indirectly influence the intention to participate in LTPA through the constructs in the Theory of Planned Behavior (including affective and instrumental attitudes and perceived behavioral control). Applying the components of both the Path Model of Antecedents and Consequences of Online Word of Mouth and the Social Cognitive Theory, the second study examined Twitter posts of PA-related eWOM. PA modeling dominated the different aspects of social influence. Most people chat rather than forward information, and provide rather than seek opinions and information about PA. PA type is associated with PA modeling in multiple ways. People with more followers are more likely to forward information about PA. This dissertation widens and deepens the understanding of PA-related eWOM on SNSs by the application of theoretical frameworks from both marketing and health behavior fields. The results suggest that people who find PA interesting and fun, perceive themselves as close to their contacts on SNSs, and have larger social network on SNSs can be recruited as opinion leaders in future interventions to promote PA. These opinion leaders can provide PA modeling and social support though SNSs which will increase their contacts' positive attitudes and PBC and consequently increase their intention to participate in PA.

This paper considers a two-echelon supply chain involving a manufacturer and a retailer who make their pricing, quality, and restocking fee decisions under the word-of-mouth (WOM) effect. To investigate the decision-making problem for the sales and product returns, we construct a leader-follower game model in which the manufacturer first determines his quality effort and the wholesale price and the retailer then decides on her retail price and the restocking fee. Our results show that the wholesale and retail prices under no WOM effect are smaller than those when the WOM effect exists; and, as the WOM has a higher impact on consumer purchases, the retailer should increase her retail price, and the manufacturer should also spend more quality control effort and raise his wholesale price. In addition, when the WOM effect exists, both the restocking fee and the retail price are decreasing in the mismatch probability. It is interesting to learn that a positive WOM may not help achieve more total sales and realized sales than a negative WOM, and the realized sales under the full refund policy may be lower than those under a partial refund policy. We also find that the manufacturer and the retailer may not benefit under the WOM effect, which mainly depends on how consumers are sensitive to the restocking fee and the WOM. The retailer can benefit from the full refund policy when the mismatch chance is not high, whereas the manufacturer can always benefit from the full refund policy.

Due to the rise of the internet, the mislabelling of food products has turned into a well-known phenomenon. There is an unsolved paradox concerning how the act of mislabelling may influence brand loyal grocery shoppers’ loyalty and purchase intentions towards their favourite food brands. To investigate the area of mislabelling and brand loyalty, four in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted in a qualitative setting. The participants were handpicked based on a purposive and convenience sampling method, where individuals with experience in the catering industry were requested. The findings suggest that the outcome of mislabelling is highly individual as it may be perceived differently depending on the shoppers’ level of involvement as well as the strength of the initial brand loyalty. The present study contributes new theoretical insights concerning the concepts of branding and brand loyalty, suggesting that trust is an essential element. Also, this study contributes to practical implications that may limit the loss of consumer trust from a firm’s perspective. For future research, this study suggests that a cultural or gender-centric investigation concerning mislabelling and brand loyal grocery shoppers would be appropriate.

Social media marketing is gradually replacing traditional marketing and becoming the primary marketing strategy for businesses. Paid and earned media have emerged as two major social media marketing forms that are important in business development research. China has more social media users than any other country in the world and is housing platforms such as Weibo, WeChat or Xiaohongshu, thus with an ever-increasing demand for social interaction between a company and a customer, the search for the optimal marketing strategies in a hyper-competitive apparel market in China is in effect. With there being a lack of research in the field, the main purpose of this study is to examine how paid and earned social media channels impact apparel customer behavior in China. Firstly, the study aimed to see to what degree paid and earned media influences apparel consumption, and, secondly, it intended to see how social media marketing strategy impacts consumers' views on brand loyalty, brand awareness and purchasing behavior. In order to do this, a quantitative study has been conducted - nine hypotheses were formulated after an extensive literature review, from which a research model has been derived and a questionnaire used to gather the opinions of local Chinese social media users has been employed. Convenience with a non-probability sampling method was adopted to collect quantitative data. A total sample of 400 respondents participated in an online questionnaire, ranging from the age of 18 to 34 and having a relatively high education level. The SPSS program was applied to analyze the collected data with multiple statistical analysis methods: Cronbach alpha reliability test, factor analysis, and linear regression analysis to test internal consistency - Cronbach alpha, construct validity, and the relationship between dependent and independent variables. The study revealed that both social media marketing types have a positive effect on apparel consumer behaviors, however, paid media only mostly influences brand awareness of apparel brands, and earned media is very effective when it comes to influencing purchasing behavior and brand loyalty of apparel brands. Moreover, the utmost importance of Word-of-Mouth marketing has come to light, as the need for increased social value urges Chinese to promote products by sharing.

Titel: Anpassning av kommunikationsstrategi under pandemi Författare: Henry Forsman och Julia Weideborn Handledare: Hans Allmér Examinator: Kaisa Lund Kurs: 2FE77E - Företagsekonomi III - marknadsföring, examensarbete (kandidat), 15 högskolepoäng, Linnéuniversitetet, vårterminen 2020. Problemformulering: Spridningen av coronaviruset har försatt samhället i en prekär sits för bedrivande av restaurangverksamhet. De statliga uppmaningarna till allmänheten att begränsa sitt vistande i folktäta miljöer har resulterat till färre besökare. Restauranger har därmed tvingats till anpassning av såväl verksamhet som kommunikationssätt för att bevara besökare.   Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur en samhällskris kan påverka företags digitala kommunikationsstrategi. Studien avser att skapa en större förståelse för hur företag kommunicerar samt upprätthåller sitt varumärke via sociala medier under utmanande förhållanden.   Metod: Studien har tillämpat en kvalitativ metod med en abduktiv forskningsansats. Insamlingen av studiens empiriska material är baserat på sju semistrukturerade telefonintervjuer. Intervjuerna har genomförts med respondenter vilka har anknytning till restaurangbranschen. Respondenterna har valts genom ett målstyrt urval.   Slutsats: Efter analys av påverkningar på restaurangbranschens kommunikationsstrategi vid en samhällskris, presenterar resultatet i studien flera faktorer som bör tas i beaktning. Dessa faktorer presenteras som: kanal, frekvens och budskap. Sociala medier har gett ökade möjligheter till interaktion, vilket har legat centralt för upprätthållande av ett varumärke under den samhällskris som undersökts. Studien framlyfter även en avgörande korrelation mellan verksamhetsanpassning och kommunikation.   Nyckelord: Kris, Kommunikation, Kommunikationsstrategi, Varumärke, Sociala medier, Budskap, Frekvens och Word of mouth.

For the last five years, Sweden has seen a quite remarkable milk war between the traditional Arla serving dairy products and the innovative Oatly offering vegan milk substitutes. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how consumers’ attitudes are affected by firms’ involvement in brand rivalry, where the conflict between Arla and Oatly served as a case. A conceptual model based on previous research was created to shed light on essential elements that affect consumers’ attitudes. Empirical data was collected through a qualitative content analysis as well as two focus group interviews. Findings resulted in three main insights concerning consumers’ attitudes. Firstly, consumers’ attitudes depend on how the brands decide to leverage and influence consumers’ emotions, where humorous content can smooth over smear campaigns. Secondly, consumers’ attitudes are influenced by their degree of knowledge regarding the conflict, where knowledgeable consumers are often more critical to the content communicated in advertisements. Lastly, consumers’ attitudes are negatively affected if a brand’s core values do not cohere with its engagement in rivalry. This dissertation has contributed to additional insights into brand rivalry initiatives from a consumer perspective. Brands should consider a public conflict more carefully to avoid negative attitudes among consumers.

Recent technological developments have changed the lifestyle of people around the world. The business sector is not an exception, and companies frequently adjust to such changes by investing in their online presence. Furthermore, the internet provides consumers with different channels to find and share their purchase experiences, and such digital interactions result in bringing forth the electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Although eWOM is an essential aspect of the overall marketing mix of modern firms, its research is heavily limited to the developed world. Thus, a qualitative study of 10 millennials from Pakistan was designed to understand how three eWOM components, i.e., Valence, Channels, and Length, affect consumer purchase intentions. The data was collected through semi-structured online interviews, and the findings show that each component has a significant impact on purchase intentions. The result confirms factors such as communicator credibility, trustworthiness, and Valence ratio as essential characteristics of the eWOM components. This study contributes to further understanding of global consumers and help companies to identify eWOM components useful for promoting and selling their products in the Pakistani market.

In the spring of 2015 this study began and it had the goal of answering questions regarding the importance of consumer engagement for a VOD service provider, the TV4-group.  The goal was to get answers to guide them in the building of a new VOD service for the latter half of 2015. The questions were: what role does consumer engagement play in creating social media presence for a VOD provider? How do consumers behave surrounding social media engagement for VOD-service? And lastly: what effect does social media presence and consumer engagement have for a VOD provider?    To answer these questions two sets of quantitative methods were used. A survey answered by 970 individuals and a tracker put on the main VOD sites owned and run by the TV4-group gave insights that led to answering the questions. Consumer engagement plays a large role in expanding the reach of VOD services, in the case of the TV4-group it was shown that consumer engagement made up a reach gain equivalent to 55,7% of average TV4 Play views, 17,3% of average Facebook upload views and 172% of tv4.se views. Consumers also evaluated their own: usage, sharing habits and sharing types giving insight to their behaviour. The effects of all this stretches from more views as a result of reach to consumer loyalty making consumer engagement a cornerstone in planning a VOD providers social media strategy.

Studiens huvudområde är marknadsföring genom skapandet av gemenskap och spridning genom Word of Mouth (WoM). Att vara medveten om detta område som grafisk designer kan underbygga träffsäkerheten i den grafiska delen av marknadsföring och kommunikation. Forskningsfrågan som studien vill besvara är: Hur bidrar grafisk design till spridning genom Word of Mouth och till ett varumärkes värdeskapande relationer med och mellan kunder? För att kunna hitta svar utförs en fallstudie av företaget Musette. Metoderna som används i studien är webbaserat frågeformulär samt visuell retorisk analys. Materialet som analyseras är svaren på formuläret samt två representativa inlägg på instagram. Analyserna baseras på Bourdieus teorier om former av kapital och Aristoteles retorik. Studien visar att de komponenter den grafiska designern bör stärka för en lyckad spridning via WoM är engagemang, trovärdighet, kompetens, gemenskap och ett bra personligt bemötande.

Titel: Social Customer Relationship Management - En kvalitativ studie om hur svenska företag inom dagligvaruhandeln använder sociala medier för att skapa samt hantera kundrelationer   Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi   Författare: Jennifer Palm och Louise Wallsten   Handledare: Jonas Molin och Lars-Johan Åge   Datum: 2021 - maj     Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att få ökad förståelse för hur företag inom dagligvaruhandeln arbetar med SCRM.     Metod: En kvalitativ forskningsansats tillämpas för denna uppsats. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer samt en mailintervju med respondenter som tillhör företag inom dagligvaruhandeln.      Resultat & slutsats: Studiens samtliga respondenter är överens om kundens centrala roll och betonar den framgång som sociala medier har bidragit med i skapandet samt hanteringen av kundrelationer. För att skapa dessa önskade kundrelationer används sociala medier som det kommunikationsverktyg där företagen kontinuerligt kommunicerar med sina kunder. Genom kundernas återkopplingar får företagen en ökad vetskap gällande hur relationer ska formas för att tillfredsställa kundens behov.      Examensarbetets bidrag: Det teoretiska bidraget för studien är den analysmodell som har utformats i syfte att minimera osäkerheten gällande företags implementering av SCRM. Vidare till det praktiska bidraget visar denna studie de positiva aspekter som finns vid implementeringen av SCRM och hoppas att företag inom dagligvaruhandeln kommer finna ett större intresse av SCRM då fördelarna med användningen överväger dess nackdelar.     Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Denna studie har ett empiriskt urval som består av respondenter från dagligvaruhandeln. Detta gör att resultatet för studien endast kan appliceras på företag som befinner sig inom liknande bransch. Vi finner därför att vidare forskning är intressant att genomföra för företag inom en annan specifik bransch i syfte att se hur dessa företag arbetar med sociala medier i koppling till kundrelationer     Nyckelord: Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM), Sociala medier, Electronic-Word-Of-Mouth (eWOM) och Dagligvaruhandel